Aragoside and iridoid glucosides from Aragoa cundinamarcensis.

From the water-soluble part of an extract of Aragoa cundinamarcensis were isolated seven iridoid glucosides, namely aucubin, catalpol, rehmannioside D, globularin, gardoside methyl ester, epiloganin and mussaenoside. The main glycoside isolated, however, was a new caffeoyl phenylethanoid triglycoside, named aragoside, containing two beta-gluco- and one alpha-arabinopyranosyl moieties which constituted almost 5 per cent of the dry weight of the plant. Finally, sorbitol was found to be the main carbohydrate constituent of the plant. This distinctive combination of compounds is very similar to that reported from some species of Plantago. The present findings therefore support the results from a recently published molecular phylogenetic study of plastid and nuclear ribosomal DNA sequences, where Aragoa was found to be the closest relative to Plantago so far discovered.